Integrating Inkjet Printing with Nanoporous Structures for High-throughput Manufacturing of 3D Heterogeneous Nanostructures

该奖项的研究成果将通过强大的沉积控制将卷对卷兼容的喷墨打印工艺扩展到3D领域，从完全或部分填充纳米孔衬底到沉积高度可重复的纳米级阵列。纳米多孔基质内的按需打印使多功能治疗材料能够通过精确控制释放和局部输送生长因子来进行药物输送，以促进组织再生。纳米模板印刷允许大面积沉积纳米阵列，以快速筛选生物分子和有效的化学检测。通过调节油墨-衬底的相互作用，实现了高通量生产高度有序的3D纳米结构。该项目将为能源纳米制造课程提供新的实验室演示，并直接受益于与可印刷太阳能电池和固态照明相关的高度相关的行业项目。社区外展计划将通过费城科学节和德雷克塞尔关于国家工程院大挑战的K-12教育计划扩展到费城市中心的K-12学生。该奖项支持将功能材料的喷墨打印与纳米孔结构相结合的基础研究，以高通量制造用于能源、生物医学和传感应用的3D异质纳米结构。具体地说，这项研究将结合原位成像、多尺度建模和高级表征来研究喷墨打印功能油墨在纳米孔基质上的同时润湿、渗透和蒸发以及随后在纳米孔内和通过纳米孔的颗粒自组装和沉积过程。同步高速相机、共焦显微镜和激光干涉测量装置将直接观察3D纳米打印过程中的复杂传输现象。将开发一种多尺度方法，在整个液滴水平上集成中尺度晶格Boltzmann模型和探测纳米颗粒与单孔内接触线相互作用的分子动力学模型，以捕捉纳米孔中径向相关的渗透过程。该项目的目标是建立纳米孔模板化3D纳米印刷的结构-工艺-性能关系。

Research results from this award will extend the roll-to-roll compatible inkjet printing process into the 3rd dimension with robust deposition controls, from complete or partial filling of nanoporous substrates to deposition of highly repeatable nanoscale arrays. Drop-on-demand printing inside nanoporous substrates enables encapsulation of multi-functional therapeutic materials for drug delivery with precisely controlled release and localized delivery of growth factors for tissue regeneration. Nanotemplated printing allows for large-area deposition of nanoarrays for rapid screening of biomolecules and efficient chemical detections. By tuning ink-substrate interactions, high-throughput production of highly ordered 3D nanostructures is achieved. This project will enable new laboratory demonstrations for the Nanomanufacturing for Energy course and directly benefit highly related industry projects on printable solar cells and solid-state lighting. The community outreach programs will extend to Philadelphia inner-city K-12 students through the Philly Science Festival and Drexel's K-12 Education Program on National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges.This award supports fundamental research on integrating inkjet printing of functional materials with nanoporous structures for high-throughput manufacturing of 3D heterogeneous nanostructures for energy, biomedical, and sensing applications. Specifically, the research will combine in-situ imaging, multi-scale modeling, and advanced characterization to examine the simultaneous wetting, infiltration, and evaporation of inkjet-printed functional inks onto nanoporous substrates and the subsequent particle self-assembly and deposition processes both inside and through nanopores. A synchronized high-speed camera, confocal microscope, and laser interferometry setup will directly observe the complex transport phenomena during the 3D nanoprinting process. A multi-scale approach, integrating a mesoscale lattice Boltzmann model at the entire drop level and a molecular dynamics model for probing interactions of nanoparticles with the contact line inside a single pore, will be developed to capture the radial-dependent infiltration process in nanopores. The project goal is to build the structure-process-property relationship for nanoporous-templated 3D nanoprinting.